pflaming Posted November 8, 2009 Report Posted November 8, 2009 Electricity flows from neg to pos. The Generator receives the electrical charge from the regulator, and sends electricity back to the regulator. Question: How does that charge get back to the battery? Is the charge from the generator so much greater than the system's demand that it then "forces" its way back to the battery? A car on an alternator can run on the alternator alone, can the same be true with a generator? Quote
Merle Coggins Posted November 8, 2009 Report Posted November 8, 2009 Electrons flow from the negative to positive, but conventional wisdom tells us that electricity flows from positive to negative. Anyway... The voltage regulator controls the field coils in the generator which controls how much electricity it generates. The Regulator is also connected to the battery. When the generator is outputing more than the system needs, the rest goes into the battery to recharge it. At lower RPM's when there is less output, the battery can make up the difference if the electric demand is higher than the generator output. Quote
Big50Dodge Posted November 9, 2009 Report Posted November 9, 2009 it's interesting that if we have a pos ground system, if we humans touched the frame, we don't get a mild shock. As we're a lot of water content and electricity flows through water well, and the tires would insulate the vehicle from the earth, only seems reasonable that we would get a 6v (very mild) or a 12v (mild) charge from this. Quote
Merle Coggins Posted November 10, 2009 Report Posted November 10, 2009 You would have to be touching the chassis and the "hot side" battery terminal (negative in our case) at the same time. Then you would create a complete circuit for electricity flow and you would get a tickle. Otherwise just touching the frame doesn't make a complete circuit, so nothing happens. Merle Quote
Don Coatney Posted November 10, 2009 Report Posted November 10, 2009 it's interesting that if we have a pos ground system, if we humans touched the frame, we don't get a mild shock. As we're a lot of water content and electricity flows through water well, and the tires would insulate the vehicle from the earth, only seems reasonable that we would get a 6v (very mild) or a 12v (mild) charge from this. A battery only looks for a connection from one pole to the other pole. It does not look for nor care about an earth ground. Water in a pure form (almost impossible to find) is actually a good insulator not a conductor of electrical current. It is the minerals in water that give it conductive properties. Quote
MBF Posted November 10, 2009 Report Posted November 10, 2009 I think you can get a hell of a tickle if you wet a finger on each hand and touch the positive and negative posts of a fully charged battery at the same time. I somehow seem to remember this happening on a dare as a kid and I aint been right since. Quote
Merle Coggins Posted November 10, 2009 Report Posted November 10, 2009 A 6 volt system will give a good tickle A 12 volt system will give a good buzz A 24 volt system will give a good BITE. Ouch!! Been there, done that. Not necessarily touching both posts, but inadvertently touching a hot wire while grounded. Merle Quote
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